Kola Ologbondiyan, former national publicity secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), says the recurring vote of confidence in Senate President Godswill Akpabio is proof that there is no peace in the upper legislative chamber.

 

He spoke on Thursday when he appeared on Channels Television’s ‘Politics Today’ programme.

 

The senate passed a vote of confidence in Akpabio on March 13 amid the ongoing controversy over the sexual harassment allegation levelled against him by Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan.

 

Opeyemi Bamidele, the senate leader, moved the motion, citing the need to reaffirm support for Akpabio.

 

The motion was seconded by Olalere Oyewumi, deputy minority leader and senator representing Osun west.

 

The confidence vote came two days after Akpoti-Uduaghan, the senator representing Kogi central, took her allegation against the senate president to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in New York.

 

Ologbondiyan said the vote of confidence in Akpabio was “worrisome”.

 

“On the issue of sexual harassment and vote of confidence, I think senator Godswill Akpabio, the senate president, will be the first president of the senate that will have sequentially close to three or four votes of confidence in a space of less than two years, and I think that should be worrisome to himself, and to the senate as an institution,” he said.

 

“Because the concept of vote of confidence, if you understudy it, it shows that there is crisis, and the presiding officer needs to be protected or needs to be reassured that the floor is with him. That is why you talk about the vote of confidence.

 

“So I think that the fact that vote of confidence has become a recurring decimal in this particular senate shows that there is no peace in the senate.

 

“And if there is peace in the senate, then it means that it could be a peace of the graveyard.”

 

The senate last passed a vote of confidence in Akpabio on October 17, 2024, after it was rumoured that there was a plot to impeach him.